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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at a June breakfast for reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, took a bold position on whether government should resume regulating political speech on the radio.
“Do you personally support revival of the Fairness Doctrine,” asked John Gizzi, political editor for Human Events.
“Yes,” said Pelosi.
While this declaration was little noted in the mainstream media, it sent shock waves through the conservative blogosphere. If the new Barack Obama administration were to make moves now to revive the doctrine, however, it surely would become one of the most hotly debated issues in America.
Nicknamed the “Censorship Doctrine” by conservatives, the so-called Fairness Doctrine was a long-time regulation of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that required that “when a broadcast station presents one side of a controversial issue of public importance reasonable opportunity must be afforded for the presentation of contrasting views.”
When it was in force, many stations simply avoided discussing controversial issues. It wasn’t worth the risk of a licensing dispute with the FCC.
Then, in 1987, an FCC dominated by Reagan appointees announced it would no longer enforce the doctrine. “Our mandate under the Communications Act is to further the public interest,” the commission said. “The FCC has tried over history to achieve that goal by limiting the First Amendment rights of broadcasters. Our experience and the evidence before us now demonstrate that the means chosen were counterproductive.”
Thus was born the Age of Rush Limbaugh.
Today, a multitude of conservative and Christian talk-show hosts, following Limbaugh’s lead, attract large and loyal audiences engaging in exactly the kind of speech the Fairness Doctrine forbade.
Many Republicans, meanwhile, are convinced the success of conservative radio is precisely why a number of top congressional Democrats, like Pelosi, want to revive the doctrine (or some facsimile of it).